Forum Journal & Forum Focus

A Preservation Vision: To Serve the Common Good

I want to speak to you today
about the role of historic
preservation in creating better
places to live for people
of all income levels and races. I
believe that at the heart of this
role is the need for vision. You
are here at this conference as
leaders and people of vision.
Every form of positive change
and transformation begins
with vision. The Book of
Proverbs states: “Where there
is no vision, the people perish.”

Last summer Cleveland’s
public television and radio
stations, WVIZ and WCPN,
conducted a series of listening
sessions throughout the
region. The single word
“vision” was cited as the most
critical precursor to addressing
community challenges. People’s
top recommendations
included fostering a positive
can-do attitude, erasing the
divide between central city
and suburbs, and developing
partnerships in support of
the arts, culture, and community
services.

More and more, we are
faced with the need for a
vision that embraces the big
picture of what is happening
around us. We need to think
from a regional perspective
rather than from the perspective
of competing parochial
interests. As a bishop, encouraging
this way of thinking -- the collaborative mentality -- has been one of my greatest
priorities. I believe that the
success of all of our work
depends upon our ability to
address the importance of
balance and interdependence
within our respective regions.
Sometimes it is much easier to
just see a part of the picture
and ignore the rest. But we
cannot escape the need to
address the fundamental interdependence
in our lives. We
are created for interdependence.
The only way to be
human is together.

The Church in the City

I would like to mention an
initiative of our Catholic diocese,
which we have named
“The Church in the City.” Our
diocese comprises an eight-county area with three urban
centers -- Akron, Lorain/Elyria,
and Cleveland—along with
many suburbs and rural areas.
In 1993, I issued a statement
which expressed a challenge to
build new cities -- cities where
people of different incomes,
races, and cultures can live
together and be enriched
together. Neighborhoods with
mixed incomes, cultures, and
religions enrich everyone.
They become a witness of how
we are meant to live together.
We need cities where the
poor and disadvantaged can
achieve their rightful dignity
and potential. Everyone wants
to live in a decent neighborhood
of which they can be
proud. This vision lies at the
heart of our religious beliefs
and our national heritage.

The Church in the City
vision acknowledges the years
of out-migration from our
central cities -- years of unbalanced
investment which promoted
housing and economic
growth in outlying areas to the
neglect of central city neighborhoods.
This imbalance led
to lost opportunities to reinvest
in older housing stock,
which could have brought
new life to neighborhoods and
maintained the historic legacy
of past eras. This unbalanced
investment did not give people
fair choices to remain in
city neighborhoods. Many
people do not want to move
out. The pattern of unbalanced
investment has led to
increasing isolation of people
by race, culture, and income.
The resulting isolation is simply
not right in our common
striving to build a good and
just society.

The Church in the City
vision challenges people to
recognize the fundamental
interdependence of our lives as
a metropolitan community.
For all of us, whether we live
in a city, suburb, or rural area,
and whatever our nationality
and religious beliefs, we are
one metropolitan society. We
are far more interdependent
than our many civic or organizational
boundaries would lead
us to believe. We share one
economy and one environment.
Our civic boundaries are
in some ways an illusion that
distracts us from the real needs
and the real capabilities of our
one society.

One of the most inspiring
and enduring aspects of The
Church in the City has been
the development of different
forms of partnership that bring
people together from very different
situations to better serve
the common good. Let me cite
the example of parish partnerships.
These partnerships have
formed between parishes in
the inner city and parishes in
outlying suburban and rural
areas. People intentionally go
out of their way to travel from
one parish to another, across
considerable distance and
across boundaries of different
cultures and economic realities.
They take time to pray
and to socialize, to work
together, and to initiate projects
of service to the wider
community. New possibilities
and new life have emerged.
People have come to see that
no one is too poor to have
something to give, and no
one is too rich to receive. We
have all come to realize that
while little happens between
strangers, all kinds of things
are possible among friends.

Partnerships that Build Community

Historic preservation must
address the “big picture” of
a region and deepen the
connectedness and interdependence
among people in
different settings. We need
preservation projects that
build partnerships and bring
people together from throughout
a metropolitan area. The
work of historic preservation is
built upon creating partnerships
among neighborhood
residents, businesses, government,
community organizations,
and religious groups --
partnerships that recognize the
interdependence of preservation
work in the central city
and the wider metropolitan
and rural communities. We
need to foster partnerships
that recognize that there are
no limits to cooperation -- no
boundaries that should divide
us -- in service to the common
good. The power of partnerships
is enhanced when people
show great respect for the
wisdom and talents that each
person brings to the table, and
when people know their need
for one another.

Places that Embody Values

The work of historic preservation
responds to a deeper need
that is important for all of us,
for people of every race and
culture: the need to remember
“who we are,” our roots and
our heritage, our values and
our beliefs. Life today is very
complex and fast paced. It can
be chaotic for some people. It
can be difficult to distinguish
between what is trivial and
what is important. One of the
great struggles for some of our
people, and especially for some
of our youth, is found in the
experience of “rootlessness” --
in being confused or forgetting
“who they are” and “where
they came from,” in being
without a deeper sense of heritage and lasting values, in
being without hope. Life
becomes all the more difficult
when this sense of identity, of
“who I am,” is lost.

One very significant way
that we help people to remember
“who they are” is through
the proper care and use of our
historic places -- our buildings,
neighborhoods, and sacred
spaces. These places provide us
with a sense of rootedness --
with a link to the past that
helps us to better understand
our direction for the future.
Across our country, historic
places and districts have been
the centers of urban rejuvenation.
Preservation efforts have
proven to be a breath of life in
dying and struggling communities.
Historic places help us
to recall the people, events,
and values that we really do
want to remember -- values
that bring depth, meaning,
and hope to people’s lives.

I want to note in a particular
way the value of religious
buildings. Within neighborhoods
struggling with diminished
populations and fewer
resources, our churches, temples,
and mosques have stood
out as symbols of enduring
presence and lasting values, as
places of great beauty and reverence,
as centers of service
and support to the people of
the surrounding community.
For many people, they are
symbols of the great sacrifices
made by past generations of
immigrant peoples from different
parts of the world -- people
who made such sacrifices
because they remembered
who they were: people who
achieved what seemed impossible
with very limited means.
In our Catholic diocese, the
churches maintained in urban
areas continue to bring people
back into “old neighborhoods”
week after week. Many people
might never come back and
maintain a relationship to the
old neighborhood without
their presence. These churches
and their ministries clearly
give hope to many different
people in the surrounding
neighborhoods. And there is
nothing more important we
can do than to give hope to
people -- the kind of hope that
inspires a better life.

Preservation as a Calling

Please know that your work as
preservationists means far
more than words can tell. The
work of restoration and preservation
has a deeper purpose. It
is a way of sharing in the great
work of God’s creation. It
contributes lasting value. I
believe that there is a deep
hunger in our lives to make a
difference -- to leave something
that we know has made
the world a better place.
Preservation work makes the
world a better place.

You are people who create
vision. You implement the
vision and get things done.
This is not an easy task. But it is
your calling. Being a leader
with a vision is not easy
because you see and believe in
possibilities before others see
them, before they are popular
and everyone wants to do
them. You can look at an old,
dilapidated structure that no
one cares about and see a
restored building revealing
exquisite craftsmanship and the
historic legacy of another era.
You can look upon a parcel of
land long forgotten and taken
for granted, and see a place
teaming with life -- with individuals
and families remembering
and celebrating things of
value. But the road from vision
to reality is not easy. Remember
that so many of our greatest
achievements in preservation
and in all forms of human
endeavor came forth because
someone had the courage to
keep the vision alive and the
willingness to make the sacrifices
to see it come true.

The Preservation Leadership Forum of the National Trust for Historic Preservation is a network of preservation leaders — professionals, students, volunteers, activists, experts — who share the latest ideas, information, and advice, and have access to in-depth preservation resources and training.